Flying

Let’s see what day is it? The twenty-sixth I think. We were leaving our eagle’s nest hotel today. Two things had to happen, one is to film the hotel we were in. That’s our pay back for getting the rooms. The second thing was to get all our gear to Panajachel, where the cars were waiting for us. There was no way the gear was going down 420 steps to the lake. So, my job was to accompany the hotel’s car, with all our junk, down a skinny twisted road, (Did I mention, real steep?) to the next boat stop. For some reason I was to go an hour before the boat came. So I sat at the dock for a while. A great chance to sit on my ass for a moment. The one thing I notice while sitting on my ass was that it wasn’t blowing hard today. Maybe today was the day to fly.

The boat arrived, the gear was loaded. By the time we got to Panajachel the weather was looking good. I called my local contact, Roger, who confirmed opinion on the weather. We planned to meet in a couple of hours to go to launch. Keith wanted to get some coverage of the zip line place. (Coverage being, shooting odds and ends that can be used to fill in between scenes.) On the way there Walter spotted Roger out in the field doing ground handling practice with a student. So I got out to introduce myself. Roger has been teaching in the area for eight years. I got the skinny on the site.

Keith and Don soon returned and we headed up to launch. With a twelve thousand foot volcano a, seemingly touchable distance across the lake and the steep, “end of the world” edge, the launch seemed much higher than it’s fifteen hundred feet. I got my paraglider out and started setting up while Don got the big camera out.

What a difference from being support to being the in the spot light. Not better, but different. Paragliding is my element. When we are filming, I’m paying a lot of attention. What should I be doing? How can I be helpful? Just staying out of the shot can be hard as Don moves around a lot with the camera. But now, I’m the dude.

I get ready. I pull the glider up a few times for Don to film. With the sharp edge the launch, the wind is a little rotor-y. I drop the glider on Don’s head once. Then I ask if he’s got what he needs and if he’s ready to film my launch. Thumbs up! I bring the glider, turn and give it my best superman launch. And it does seem like the edge of the earth. The edge falls away so steeply, there is a town climbing up the side of the mountain far below, the lake is BLUE. And I am going up! Don, the camera and launch are falling away below me. Usually this is the best thing but for filming, looking straight up at a tiny glider surrounded by blue is kind of dull. And I’ve got world class scenery around me. I head away from the mountain to lose the lift. No luck there’s lift everywhere. I pull big ears to get back down around launch level. I make a bunch of passes. BUT I’ve got to cut this flight short. I’ve got to head to the LZ to get back up to take Don tandem. We needed in flight footage to tell the story. So I’m off over the lake, a thousand feet below to head to the river mouth where I am to land.

Back up at launch it is obvious that Don is not real comfortable about going flying. We couldn't be farther apart in emotional state. I’ve been out there already and I’m excited to get back in the air, it’s perfect. Don doing the, “is this the last moment of my life”. thing. I get him suited up, go through the briefing. For all the apprehension, Don was the perfect passenger. Alas, for me, it had lighten up. There was very little lift. We made a few passes in from of the launch and then left for the landing zone. I got in a perfect flare so the landing was gentle.

So day three paid off for flying. I could have flown for hours, but filming put restriction on what I could do. Panajachel is a place worth further exploring. I must come back here to fly some more.

This was our last day in Lake Atitlan. The drive out showed me the views that were hidden in the fog on the way in, days before. We drove around the lake, passing two of the volcanos that were the back drop of the area. The cloudscape was amazing and as it built, it drove over the backs of the volcanos. Long tendrils of cloud twisted and curled over the town of Santiago below. In the dark we arrived, back at sea level, to the next hotel. Tomorrow, fishing.